The invention relates to a combinatorial weighing apparatus.
In a combinatorial weighing apparatus disclosed in EP 0 082 696 A2, below a central dispersing device 1, as shown schematically in FIG. 4, a plurality of conveyor troughs 2 are arranged beside one another which convey the products to be weighed from the dispersing device 1 to weighing containers. In each conveyor trough 2, as may be seen in the schematic sectional view in FIG. 5, the upper rim 3 of one of the side walls 4, 5 in each case is bent over in such a way that the adjoining side wall 5 of the neighbouring conveyor trough 2 is overlapped. The overlapping begins below the edge of the dispersing device 1 and extends over a part of the length of the conveyor trough 2. In the case of elongated flexible products, such as spaghetti or flat noodles in the wet state or oiled rubber coils, it can happen that the products from the dispersing device 1 come onto the upper edge 3 and are pushed further outwards on the upper edge 3 by products pushing from behind. These products do not slide to the base 6 of the conveyor trough 2 and cling to the upper edge 3 of the side wall 4. They cannot be moved by vibration of the conveyor trough 2. The same difficulty occurs in the conveyor troughs 7 shown in FIG. 6 which differ from the conveyor troughs 2 shown in FIG. 5 in that each base 8 has an indented pleat and that the side walls 9, 10 do not extend at right angles to the base 8 but rather are inclined a little to the neighbouring conveyor trough 7 in question.
The object of the invention is to provide a combinatorial weighing apparatus in which elongated, flexible products can be reliably fed from the dispersing device via the supply troughs to the weighing containers.
The object is achieved by the combinatorial weighing apparatus of Claim 1.
Developments of the invention are specified in the subclaims.